International Business Machines Corporation

Other

Frank Eliot Levine

Robert John Urquhart

Jimmie Earl DeWitt, Jr

Christopher Michael Richardson

Edward Hugh Welbon

Robert Tod Dimpsey

Robert Francis Berry

Enio Manuel Pineda

Riaz Yousuf Hussain

Charles P Roth

William Preston Alexander, Iii

Scott Thomas Jones

Chester Charles John, Jr

Kean G Kuiper

Milena Milenkovic

Roy Stuart Moore

Robert J Urguhart

Jesse Mannes Gordon

Wen-Tzer Thomas Chen, Jr

David Kevin Siegwart

John Day Howard

Ronald O'Neal Edmark

William John Starke

Mary Prilotski Kusko

Anna Wanda Topol

Edward John Silha

William Robert Reynolds

Stella Lee Taylor

Frank Carl Gover

Danny Marvin Neal

Newton James Smith, Jr

Chandrasekaran Mohan

Graham Alan Chapman

Phani Gopal V Achanta

Jack Chris Randolph

Phani Achanta

Donald Lawrence Mulvey

Marilyn Diane Smith Dawkins

Maciek Klimkowski

Bret Ronald Olszewski

Richard Louis Arndt

Sanjay Raghunath Deshpande

Jonathan Mark Wagner

Trent Gray-Donald

Brian Chase Twichell

Bradley David McCredie

Gary Randall Horn

Luc Rene Smolders

Weiming Gu

Raymond Morris Bryant

Harry Dwyer

Paul Lee Clouser

Charles G Wright

Charles W Wright

Aleksandar Milenkovic

Lloyd E Jordan, Ii

Linda C Elliott

Wai Yee Peter Wong

William Presten Alexander, Iii

Benjamin Joseph Hoflich

Clive Richard Kates

Cheng-Fong Shih

William W Myre, Jr

Milena Milinkovic

Robert J Urouhart

Robert Todd Dimpsey

The present disclosure provides a computer program product and activity recording system for identifying idleness in a processor via a concurrent software environment. A thread state indicator records an indication of a synchronization state of a software thread that is associated with an identification of the software thread. A time profiler identifies a processor of the computer system being idle and records an indication that the processor is idle. A dispatch monitor identifies a dispatch of the software thread to the processor. In response to the dispatch monitor determining the indication identifies that the processor is idle and the indication of a synchronization state of the software thread indicating the software thread ceases to execute in the processor, the dispatch monitor generates a record attributing the idleness of the processor to the software thread and the indicated synchronization state.

Recording activity of software threads in a concurrent software environment

The present disclosure provides a method for identifying idleness in a processor via a concurrent software environment. A thread state indicator records an indication of a synchronization state of a software thread that is associated with an identification of the software thread. A time profiler identifies a processor of the computer system being idle and records an indication that the processor is idle. A dispatch monitor identifies a dispatch of the software thread to the processor. In response to the dispatch monitor determining the indication identifies that the processor is idle and the indication of a synchronization state of the software thread indicating the software thread ceases to execute in the processor, the dispatch monitor generates a record attributing the idleness of the processor to the software thread and the indicated synchronization state.

Synchronization activity recording system for a concurrent software environment

A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer program product for managing garbage collection. Monitoring is performed for a garbage collection state in a virtual machine. Responsive to detecting the garbage collection state, a priority for a set of garbage collection threads is increased.

Managing garbage collection in a data processing system

A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for collecting information about threads. A thread entering a wait state is detected. Information is selectively obtained about a set of threads in the wait state using a policy to produce an action in response to the thread entering the wait state. A history containing the collected data may be saved and used to determine changes to patterns.

Analyzing wait states in a data processing system

A process generates a sample based on an event. The process identifies, with a dispatch monitor, a next dispatched monitored thread that is dispatched by a current processor. The process sets a processor affinity of the next dispatched monitored thread such that the next dispatched monitored thread runs only on the current processor without being able to migrate to a different processor. The process also retrieves, with a sampled thread that runs on the current processor, a next dispatched monitored thread call stack after the processor affinity of the next dispatched monitored thread has been set to the processor. The process restores the processor affinity of the next dispatched monitored thread after the next dispatched monitored thread call stack has been obtained.

Idle transitions sampling with execution context

The present disclosure provides a method, computer program product, and system for compensating for event counts for a thread occurring during targeted states on the thread. In example embodiments, the state is a spin loop state and instructions completed during the spin loop are eliminated from a performance report and are presented in the absence of the spin loop. In another embodiment, the event counts are interrupt counts eliminated during the spin loop.

Excluding counts on software threads in a state

A sample is generated based on an event. Further, an interrupt handler captures information for an interrupted thread on a current processor. In addition, an affinity of the interrupted thread is set such that the interrupted thread runs only on the current processor without being able to migrate to a different processor. A sampler thread that runs on the current processor retrieves a call stack associated with the interrupted thread after the affinity of the interrupted thread has been set to the current processor. The affinity of the interrupted thread is restored after the call stack has been retrieved.

Performing call stack sampling by setting affinity of target thread to a current process to prevent target thread migration

A method and apparatus for identifying a minimum call tree data structure from a plurality of call tree data structures are provided. With the apparatus and method, call tree data structures are generated for two or more executions of a build of a computer program. The apparatus and method perform a 'tree-minimization' operation in which the two or more call trees generated during runs of the computer program are walked and only those nodes that are present in each of the tree data structures are maintained in a minimized tree data structure. In addition, the minimum values for these common nodes are maintained in the minimized tree data structure. In this way, asynchronous events are removed from the minimum tree data structure and analysis may focus on those areas of the computer program that are consistent between runs of the computer program.

Removal of asynchronous events in complex application performance analysis

A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for sampling call stack information. Monitoring for an event is performed during an execution of a plurality of threads by a set of processors. A portion of the plurality of threads is identified based on a policy to form a set of identified threads in response to an occurrence of the event. Call stack information is collected for the set of identified threads using an under utilized processor in a set of processors in response to identifying the portion of the plurality of threads, wherein the call stack information is used to profile a processor in the set of processors.

Call stack sampling to obtain information for analyzing idle states in a data processing system

A plurality of samples is generated in a computer to profile and record a plurality of events associated with the computer. For each of the plurality of samples, a plurality of partial samples is accumulated prior to occurrence of each of the plurality of events. In addition, a processor may process a current sample of the plurality of samples in response to (i) a completion of a previous sample of the plurality of samples and (ii) a predetermined threshold quantity of partial samples being accumulated. Embodiments of the invention include methods, systems and computer program products.

Sampling with sample pacing

An interrupt is generated based on an event. Further, a thread is selected for monitoring. In addition, an interrupt handler captures information for the monitored thread. An affinity of the monitored thread is set such that the monitored thread runs only on a current processor without being able to migrate to a different processor. A sampler thread that runs on the current processor retrieves a call stack associated with a monitored thread after the affinity of the monitored thread has been set to the current processor.

Scalable system call stack sampling

Hardware assist to autonomically patch code. The present invention provides hardware microcode to a new type of metadata to selectively identify instructions to be patched for specific performance optimization functions. The present invention also provides a new flag in the machine status register (MSR) to enable or disable a performance monitoring application or process to perform code-patching functions. If the code patching function is enabled, the application or process may patch code at run time by associating the metadata with the selected instructions. The metadata includes pointers pointing to the patch code block code. The program code may be patched autonomically without modifying original code.

Autonomic hardware assist for patching code

A processor-implemented method, system and/or computer program product for managing computer file storage is presented. A file, which is designated for storage, is received. Upon determining that the file exceeds a pre-determined size, the file is stored in a pre-designated folder that is reserved for oversized files. This pre-designated folder is protected such that any file stored within the pre-designated folder is prevented from being moved into archival storage.

Automated file relocation

A data processing system for processing instructions is shown. Instructions are received at a processor in the data processing system. If a selected indicator is associated with the instruction, counting of each event associated with the execution of the instruction is enabled.

Counting instruction execution and data accesses

A method, apparatus, and computer instructions for qualifying events by types of interrupt when interrupt occurs in the processor of a data processing system. A programmable performance monitoring unit (PMU) is used to program hardware counters that collect events associated with a type of interrupt, including nested interrupts. The performance monitoring unit may also count events that occur while servicing interrupt requests based upon the state of interrupt processing. Events that are known to the performance monitoring unit such as instruction retired, TLB misses, may be counted at the same time using a number of performance monitoring counters in the performance monitoring unit.

Qualifying collection of performance monitoring events by types of interrupt when interrupt occurs

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Austin, TX, United States of America

Frank Eliot Levine